Last Chances
'' Final Week at Lakewood Middle School ''is the twenty-fifth book in the Middle School Experience series. It is the second-to-last book in the series. It chronicles the girls' last few weeks at eighth graders at Lakewood before they have to graduate. It's graduation from middle school to high school for the girls. However, some of them are not ready for the transition. Ellie is afraid of possibly becoming a leader in the future, Maryann is nervous about her last performance in the drama club, and Arabella is afraid that she will never get her first kiss from Robbie. Will the girls fix their problems before their middle school life ends? Summary On a spring afternoon, Ellie is eating lunch at Lakewood Middle School with her friends when they talk about the upcoming last day of school. Some of her friends are excited to graduate from middle school, but some of them are nervous and worried about high school. The girls talk about making the most of their last few weeks at Lakewood and decide to participate in every fun activity they can find. A few of the girls decide to go to the mall to buy outfits for the Farewell Dance, which usually falls on the last day of school. While the girls are at the mall, Arabella thinks about how she wants to have her first kiss from her boyfriend Robbie. She and Jessie decide to go window shopping, but they stop at Macy's when Arabella finds her dream dress for the Farewell Dance. After she buys the dress, the girls walk out of the store, but run into Robbie and Freddy, who are also at the mall. The group decides to go a video game store, where Freddy and Jessie decide to try out the new FIFA game. Arabella "subtly" hints to Robbie about wanting her first kiss, and it seems like Robbie understands her hints, but he brings up something about an invention that he had made for the science club, which annoys Arabella. On Tuesday afternoon, Maryann, Chloe, and Daphne are at a drama club meeting rehearsing for the school play ''Hairspray, ''which is going to be presented on the last day of school. A girl named Tiffany is playing the lead role, but Maryann, who had also wanted the role, and her friends think that she is not that talented. In the middle of the meeting, Ms. Thomas announces that some theater critics from some prestigious performing arts schools are coming to watch the play on Friday, and she wants everyone to do their best. Maryann doesn't care about possibly being recruited to attend a performing arts school, but she knows that she will do her best anyway. The same afternoon, Ellie attends the student council end-of-the-year party. Robbie arrives late because he had attended the science club's end-of-year party a few minutes before. As Robbie is talking about his presentation at the science club to his student council friends, Ellie decides to talk to Vice-Principal Clayton, who is also at the party. Ellie tells the vice-principal how excited she is that she will be with all of her close friends in the student council in high school, but Vice-Principal Clayton explains that Robbie is taking a break from student office next year. She suggests that Robbie's absence from student council will give the rest of the council members in their grade opportunities to become leaders, but Ellie doesn't like the sound of that. She is terrified that the student council members will now look to her as a leader. By Wednesday, Arabella is quickly becoming frustrated about Robbie not noticing her hints about wanting her first kiss. She talks to Chloe, Jessie, and Gail about her situation, and they advise to straight up tell Robbie that she wants her first kiss. Before homeroom starts, Arabella runs into Robbie in the hallways and is surprised when he says that he needed to see her right away. Believing that her first kiss is happening now, Arabella begins to get nervous. Robbie asks her if she is doing anything after school, and Arabella, thinking that Robbie is taking her out on a romantic date, says that she would love to go out to ice cream with him. However, Robbie didn't plan on taking her out to ice cream, but is actually asking her to watch Freddy and Jessie's last soccer games of the season. Arabella is annoyed, but agrees to go with Robbie anyway. She feels bad that she can't outright tell him what she wants. The same day, Ellie and the student council members are meeting at the gym to set up decorations for the Farewell Dance. Ellie arrives late because she is afraid that she will have to be in charge. By the time, she arrives to the gym, she notices that Robbie is leaving, but Robbie tells her that he is watching the soccer games with Arabella. He tells her that Vanessa is in charge, but she might leave early, which means Ellie will eventually have to be in charge. Vanessa later informs her that she is indeed leaving early, which freaks out Ellie. Ellie decides to help the sixth grade members make decorations, and as she works, she talks to them about high school. They believe that she will become a good leader, but she is doubtful. Eventually, Vanessa leaves the gym and Ellie is forced to be in charge. As soon as Vanessa leaves, things begin to go downhill quickly, and Ellie becomes stressed out. Gabby, Clarissa, and Marylin are in charge of picking out music for the dance, but they are off-task. When Ellie tries to confront them, they are rude to her, and Gabby tells her that she will crash and burn as a leader and she should be seen and not heard. Ellie loses even more confidence that she will be a competent leader. On Thursday, Arabella has grown annoyed with Robbie. After lunch, Robbie walks up to her and tries to talk to her, but Arabella refuses to speak to him. Robbie finally picks up on Arabella's bad mood, but Arabella snaps at him about refusing to pick up on the hints that she had been dropping the entire week. Robbie grows annoyed at Arabella's tantrum and admits that he has a problem with her always hiding how she feels from him. However, this hurts Arabella and she tells Robbie she doesn't want to go to the dance with him before running away in tears. For the rest of the day, she is miserable. After school, she tells a few of her friends that she and Robbie had gotten into a fight, and her friends tell her that she needs to make the first move. Arabella and Jessie walk outside to the bus canopy, but they meet up with Robbie and Freddy; Robbie decides to avoid them. Arabella hopes that things between them can be resolved soon. Things at the ''Hairspray ''dress rehearsal turn out to be very stressful. The sets aren't fully painted, some people have not received their costumes yet, and Ms. Thomas is very stressed out. Maryann has noticed that Tiffany has not been putting the full effort into playing the lead role, but today, Tiffany is especially bad. However, the rest of the cast does well, and Ms. Thomas starts to calm down a little. Unfortunately, her good mood is ruined when Tiffany announces to her that she had sent in an application to a performing arts school in downtown Atlanta and that she is quitting the play. This angers Ms. Thomas so much that she flat out tells Tiffany that she is untalented, but Tiffany is unbothered. Maryann and her friends try to comfort their teacher, but Ms. Thomas is worried that she will not find someone to play the lead role on time. Daphne and Chloe suggest that Maryann play the lead role, but Maryann is terrified about it because she will have to rehearse at the last minute. The next morning, Ellie is nervous about going to school. During breakfast, she tells her mom that she is nervous about going to high school and her fears about becoming a leader. Her mom tells her that she had been scared about leaving elementary school to go to middle school, but that everything ended up turning out fine for her. She tells Ellie that she doesn't have to become the class president in high school, but reassures her that there is nothing wrong with becoming a leader. Ellie begins to feel better from her mother's pep talk and begins to look forward to high school. After school that day, all of the eighth graders gather in a hallway to prepare for their graduation ceremony. Ellie talks to some of the student council members about the ceremony before talking to some of her friends. Unfortunately, Maryann and Arabella do not share Ellie's enthusiasm; Arabella is still upset about her fight with Robbie and Maryann is terrified of embarrassing herself in the play. Ellie gives them a pep talk about staying optimistic about their problems, surprising but pleasing her friends. Soon, the students are instructed by Vice-Principal Clayton to line up and prepare to walk out onto the football field for the ceremony. Ellie, Chloe, Daphne, and Maryann are some of the students that are graduating first, so they are placed at the front of the line. When the students arrive to the field, Principal Watson begins the ceremony with a speech. After he speaks, Robbie, Vanessa, and Ellie make speeches; Ellie's speech is moving and earns her a standing ovation. After the speeches, the students are handed their diplomas. The rest of the ceremony goes on successfully, and Ellie is happy that she had graduated from middle school. After the ceremony ends, the students file into the auditorium to watch the play. Maryann begins to get nervous about performing again. She contemplates quitting, but she doesn't want to let Ms. Thomas or the rest of the cast and crew again. Finally, after she decides to focus on nothing except perfecting her role, she decides to make the most of her performance. Maryann ends up doing very well, and when the curtain goes down one last time, she and her friends congratulate each other. Ms. Thomas walks up to them and tells them that she had enjoyed seeing them performance for the past three years, and the girls hug her and say that they are going to miss her when they go to high school. The girls decide to change into their outfits for the dance, and Maryann is glad that she had ended her time in the drama club on a high note. A lot of people attend the dance, including Arabella's friend from gymnastics Susan, but everyone except for Arabella is having fun. Her friends decide to hit the dance floor, but Arabella decides that she wants to go home. Regina and Susan convince her not to, and Regina tells Arabella that she has to be the one to make the move if she doesn't want things to end badly between her and Robbie. When a slow song begins playing, Arabella decides to speak to Robbie. She asks Robbie to dance, and they talk while they dance. Arabella apologizes to Robbie for acting difficult yesterday, and admits to him that she wants her first kiss. To her surprise, Robbie tells her that he wants his first kiss, too, but he had been afraid to tell her and he didn't know if she was ready for it or not. The rest of the dance goes well for them. By the end of it, Robbie decides to talk to Arabella privately. He tells her that she was the best part of his middle school experience, and they end up having their first kiss. The moment is broken when Freddy's parents arrive to pick him and Freddy up from the dance, but Robbie and Arabella plan to make plans to hang out the following day. When Robbie leaves, Arabella walks back towards her friends and tells them what had happened. Chloe's mom arrives to the school to pick up all of the girls for a sleepover at the Winters' house and the girls talk about the last day of school for the entire ride. Arabella is glad that the last day of middle school had gone well for her and her friends. Characters (in order of appearance) * Ellie Jackson * Maryann Chang * Arabella Wilson * Leah Harrison * Gail Edwards * Chloe Winters * Daphne Carson * Regina Daniels * Alex Sanders * Jessie Sanchez * Robbie James * Freddy Hamilton * Tiffany Reed * Angela Thomas * Vanessa Lopez * Dominick Taylor * Jeremy Parker * Vice-Principal Clayton * McKayla * Joe * Brian * Karyn * William Carpenter * Divya Tikku * Gabby Evans * Clarissa Simpson * Marylin Roberts * Shannon Winters * Principal Watson * Susan Duncan * Chad Trivia *This story was rewritten four times. First edition, 2009. Fourth edition, 2014. *Originally, this story was going to be about Chloe feeling annoyed when it seems like Arabella is spending too much time with Robbie, but the creator thought that that plot was painfully cliche, stupid, and babyish, so she reworked it a lot. Category:Stories Category:Articles under construction